"Have you forgotten everything I ever taught you?" Mistress Kering questioned as she eyed the little fairy. Dejectedly, Kigen flew up once more for another attempt.
It had been an emotional couple of days, but Mistress Kering was there to comfort and cajole him, making him 'see' the wisdom in listening to her. So far, Kigen found that he did not have that much cause to complain, even if the woman was responsible for his death.
She had made his acutely aware of the kind of life he would expect to live as a human. He would probably get the girl, maybe some fame, and then what? Have some kids, be a pillar of the community, and die, probably surrounded by his grandchildren.
By all accounts, that would not be a bad life. However, it was common, ordinary. Nothing too eye-catching about it.
However, according to Mistress Kering, there was nothing normal or ordinary about being a fairy. Even the way they reproduced was awesome. Instead of just simply popping out a bunch of kids, they would get a baby seed, and if well nurtured, it could grow to become another mother tree, producing more and more fairies.
Mistress Kering also went ahead and informed Kigen that fairies were considered children of magic. They had high affinities to the magical elements, especially the ones that were innate to them.
As a fairy, Kigen would have a much easier time manipulating the various elements such as wind, rock, and wood.
Moreover, there were other kinds of fairies, not just those, like him, which were born in the rainforest. Some were born from aquatic plants, bearing more control over the water element, while others were born in desert conditions, thus having more control over the fire element.
All these and many more were wonders that the woman told the fairy, promising to take him in each and every one of these wonders.
However, she did put a condition. If they were going to go to Faye city, then they needed to grow stronger and much more powerful. They also needed to increase the number of fairies.
So far, there was one, Kigen, and another that was growing. Even without Kigen informing her, Mistress Kering had already identified the little bud and was rather pleased by it.
According to her, if we took the mother tree to be as any other tree, and the little fairies to be the fruits of the tree, then it stood to reason that they could find ways of optimizing birth of new fairies.
One of the most recognized methods used was to feed the mother tree directly with a beast that could wield magical powers. By some mysterious methods, the mother tree could extract this power and use it to make a new fairy. Sometimes, it could even pass this power on to the newborn.
Kigen had unknowingly done this. That eagle that had fiercely pursued him had provided the building blocks to the new budding fairy.
"How did you move me from my body to this form?" Kigen had naturally been curious about this. He had also wanted to know if the same could be done to others, unfortunately, Mistress Kering did not give him a satisfactory answer.
The first question was met with a stopper: "A woman must have her secrets," she said, acting all coy.
The second was a direct no. Apparently, it took years of preparation just to get Kigen's soul ready for the move, and once he was, she had to act fast. Such conditions were not so easily created, and only very few could even take it. Besides, she could only do that to a guardian.
To any fairy clan, there existed a guardian. The firstborn fairy for any new mother tree received certain advantages and blessings from the mother tree. Since they were meant to brave the world first, these gifts enabled them to survive being alone and also act as guides to their younger siblings.
Similarly, not all mother trees would give rise to powerful guardians. Kigen's mother tree was very special, since it was birthed from royalty. However, Mistress Kering did not share this information with Kigen.
As she continued to explain, she made references to certain gifts she saw in Kigen, that made the young man stand out among his siblings, or rather, those they grew up with.
This made Kigen realize that she had been planning this for a long time, a fact she did not deny. Perhaps this was why she started an orphanage, so as to pick from among the group of unfortunate kids.
However, all this was past, and he had the rest of his future to think about. This was how he ended up taking lessons from her.
He was supposed to pursue a small fruit, which she manipulated with wind magic. The test was to see his level of agility and control over elemental power of wind.
"Seriously? How can you call yourself a fairy? I am human and can do all this? Don't you know to that fairies naturally excel in wind elemental magic?" Mistress Kering berated the poor fairy as he tried and failed several times to catch the ball.
"What have you been doing these past weeks? How can you guide your people if you can only amount to this much?" Her voice hit deep, motivating the boy inside a fairy's body to work harder.
However, despite his best efforts, Kigen still ended up falling short time and time again. Eventually, the night came, and it was time for Mistress Kering to go back to the village.
"I can't stay for too long, you need to be reliant on yourself," She had stated, leaving behind a flabbergasted Kigen. However, he did not pursue or make further inquiries, he felt she had given him enough to think about.